The Gas House Kids in Hollywood

I managed to watch this "Gas House Kids" entry when I found out it was on an Amazon channel. Because some of the people were talking behind me while I watched, I relied on the visual humor to carry me through. One funny scene was when two former "Our Gang" members-Tommy Boyd and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer-were initially unaware of a skeleton in their midst. Boyd-who used to play the bully Butch on his former kid series-is friends with Alfie here. And, yes, Alfalfa still sings off-key! Another member does sing a good number later on. There's also a movie star the gang are wanting to meet and some pretty girls. Anyway, this was pretty enjoyable for what I managed to get of the plot of it.

GAS HOUSE KIDS IN Hollywood is another example of the 'kid gang' genre of films that were popular with audiences during the 1940s. Other examples include the Bowery Boys, the East Side Kids, and of course the earlier Our Gang adventures. The Gas House Kids only had a trilogy of outings, and there were only four of them, but they provide fitful if undistinguished amusement.

The lightweight story in this film sees the quartet of youths heading to Hollywood to meet a star of the screen, popular detective actor Lance Carter. Chief among them is the overage 'Alfalfa', whose singing in the car goes on way too long and threatens the eardrums of any sane viewer. As is the usual with such films, the kids meet a mad scientist (an on-form Milton Parsons) and wind up at his house, where a criminal gang are on the prowl.

There's a lot of lurking around in corridors and stuff involving secret passageways and the like; in fact, the story is almost exactly the same as GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE, a Bela Lugosi-starrer I watched the day before. The comedy is pretty pitiful and the quality of the acting is little better. The overage child actors mug the situation for all their worth while the back-and-forth nature of the plotting goes on and on, dragging this out to endless length. It's only a film for die-hard fans of the genre, if there are any...

For the third and last "Gas House Kids" film, it's murder in a spooky house involves a movie star detective (Michael Whalen), the typical dumb police officer (James Burke), a spooky looking man who looks like an undertaker (Milton Parsons) and a wisecracking bird. It's a staple of comedy that pretty much every comedy team had tried, and few had succeeded in. The four Gas House Kids head to the movie capital of the world to meet their idol (Whalen), are offered a place to stay by Parsons, and find more going on than just Parson's weird experiments.

This movie doesn't try in the least to be original with a plethora of gags that were used a dozen times. Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer gets to repeat his off key singing, joined by Bowery Boy Bennie Bartlett, former rival rascal Tommy Bond and Rudy Wissler. the only difference in this haunted house is that it's populated by Parsons pretty daughter and her bevy of friends, and that means that there will be a musical number to bring the story to a hault. There are a few very funny lines, and the visit to Whelan's movie studio is well handled with a funny sight gag that shows how the foursome get in. The parrot gets the laughs, but the audience, having to put up with nearly an hour of mostly unfunny stuff gets the bird.

After seeing what low budget success Sam Katzman was having over at Monogram with the Bowery Boys, the folks at PRC put together their own youthful group of miscreants. The Gas House Kids is a pale imitation of the Bowery Boys and when you consider their stuff was pretty low brow what can you imagine this crew is like.

Benny Bartlett, Rudy Wister, Tommy Bond, and Carl Switzer are the Gas House Kids and they're going to Hollywood to meet their idol, movie detective Michael Whalen. On the way they get involved with some girls, a pair of murders, a scientist in a haunted house in addition to finding out that they're idol Whalen isn't quite what they make him out to be.

We do find out one thing, even after he's grown up and lost that screeching soprano, Alfalfa still couldn't sing worth a lick. And he's not enough reason to tune in to this crew. Unlike the Bowery Boys this bunch has no distinctive personalities the way Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were.